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OUR COUNTEY 
SHAMED. BUT SAVED. 



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SEUMO^ 



ON 



THE NATIONAL FAST-DAY, 

Sept. 26, 1861. 

BY 

Rev. D. Mc L. QUACKENBUSH, 

PASTOR OF THE PROSPECT HILL REFORMED DUTCn CHURCn, NEW-YORK - . 



Published by desire of the Congregation. 



NEW-YORK : 

FANSHAW'S STEAM PRINTING ESTABLISHMENT, 

35 Ann-street, corner of Nassau. 

1861. 



SERMON. 



Judges n : 13. 

" And Gideon said fxto IIim, ' 0, my Loed, if the Lord be with us, 
why then is all tiiis befallen fs ? and where be all hls 
miracles "vviiicn ofe fathees told fs of ? ' " 

The Lord led Israel out of Egypt. He brake 
their bonds and brought them freedom. A land fair 
and fertile He gave them to dwell in, and fed them 
with the fatness of the earth. They sat in peace, and 
none dared to disturb them, for they were His care. 
For this care He asked fear. The least they could 
rightly have rendered to the Lord for all His mercies 
would r have been constant service, a true love and 
thankful devotion. But they did not obey His voice, 
neither serve Him with a true heart fervently. Their 
impiety made them weak. It estranged God, and that 
left them without protection. Then trouble came. 
Terrible were the disasters that fell upon them. And 
no help came until, as we do to-day, they cried unto 
the Lord. Then the Lord, singling out the man for the 
day, sent an angel to Gideon to summon him to the 
work of Israel's deliverance. This man heard from 
heavenly lips the assurance meant to give him hope 
and courage for the fight, the assurance of God's pres- 



ence and help. But hearing, he looked around upon 
ruined cities, upon recent graves, upon the impoverish- 
ment and terror of the nation, and his lips asked: "If 
the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us ? 
And where be all His miracles which our fathers told 
us of?" 

We may suspect that there was in these inquiries 
an infusion of doubt, that unbelief, lurking within, 
questioned as to the fact of the Divine presence in a 
land so darkly shadowed by troubles, and petulantly 
called for a repetition of ancient miracles. But perhaps 
we wrong the honored man who spake these words. 
His tone may have been not^of doubt and petulance, 
but of grief and penitence, asking, " With God yet 
among us, the disasters of to-day declare that He 
must have great cause of controversy with us, — what 
is that cause ? Let us know it, that we may humble 
ourselves. His miracles for our defense have been 
many. How ready He has always been to save! 
What now checks His hand ? What holds Him back 
roin working for His own ? Let us know, that we 
may break off that which keeps His favor from us." 

The appropriateness of such inquiries in that tone 
and temper for us to-day, every heart, I am sure, will 
at once feel and be ready to confess. This is for us, 
"a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy." 

We began this year with prayer and humiliation. 
Its first week had not passed when, in view of threat- 
ening clouds on our horizon, the nation was called to 



cry unto the Lord. And now again, before three- 
fourths of the year has quite passed away, in fasting, 
humiliation and prayer the nation bows itself down 
before the face of the Lord God. I do not think that 
two national fasts have ever before occurred in our 
land in one year. 

The voice that but lately, from the highest place, 
called the nation to arms, now calls it to prayer, — to 
pray armed, ready to dare what duty demands, but 
daring to hope only in God's blessing. It is worth 
no little sorrow to hear from the ruler's seat the call 
of a nation to penitence and prayer. It is the pub- 
lic protest of the common conscience against infi- 
delity. God does reign, and the heart knows it, 
though the proud head may sometimes dare to deny 
it. Especially is this marked in humiliation for sin. 
One that counts himself worthy of the mercies he re- 
ceives may cheaply acknowledge the good given, and 
with pride give thanks. But penitence for sin gets 
no relief in its pain from any self-confidence. It seeks 
the dust. It hides its face. With bitter words of 
self-accusation it makes confession, if haply the Lord 
may hear and be gracious. 

Very satisfactory and comforting is it to take no- 
tice with what unanimity this call to humiliation and 
prayer has been approved in our land. The deep 
heart of this people, careless and worldly as we seem 
on the surface, knows that this is right, and believes 
that it is wise. Through all the loyal States this hour 
rises one voice of supplication, and millions mourning 



cry unto the Lord. And I verily believe also that in 
the States involved in the rebellion, many, whose 
voices the merciless hand of the revolt hath hushed, 
will with us to-day cry unto the Lord for the dear 
land, both theirs and ours. They, who cannot amid 
the tumult of treason make men hear, will make the 
Lord hear to-day. No violence of man can bar up 
the way to the Mercy-seat. Welcome, welcome to- 
day is that help which comes of the faithful among 
the faithless ! God grant they may soon have room 
to show their loyalty in other ways beside prayer! 

A sad sight, truly, is our land now. So lately quiet 
and prosperous, by a blow as sudden as a lightning- 
flash it seems now to be severed, and the broken frag- 
ments, tossed by angry waves, madly dash against each 
other as if to the ruin of both. One portion of our 
land is girt by a circle of arms. From the edge of 
the distant settlements on our western border down 
to oozy Cairo, along Kentucky's fair valleys, once 
known as the "dark and bloody ground," doomed, 
perhaps, to regain in deadlier battle its ancient name, 
to the gap by which the Potomac passes the moun- 
tain ridge, past the swelling dome of the Capitol, 
down to the walls of the great fortress that frowns 
upon the sea, stretches a line of camps and entrench- 
ments and bristling armies. And from the point 
where that line touches the ocean, great ships watch 
every port and inlet round by the flowery shores 
beyond the place where Mississippi's turbid current 
mingles with the sea. As under the ancient law the 
leper was put in a several house, that the hideous 



disease upon him might not spread, so here the 
strong police of the nation hath shut in treason, 
that as little harm as possible may come to the people 
from this horrible pest, until the fit hour come for its 
eradication, if God so please. It is when we look 
upon this sad sight, many of the worst features of 
which have not been portrayed, that we ought to be 
ready to say : "If the Lord be with us, why then is 
all this befallen us ? " And though I count this rather 
a day for prayer than preaching, yet it may not be 
amiss to offer as guidance in prayer, some answers to 
this query. 

1. In a course of years, and those but few, since 
the establishment of our government, a good Provi- 
dence over us had given us vast accessions of popula- 
tion, of territory, and of wealth. But we did not 
humbly receive these gifts. We did not piously ask 
what use we ought to make of our mercies. Rather 
wc grew to them. We lived in them. We made our 
country our God. We glorified it. We magnified it. 
We adored it. We sang hymns in its praise. We for- 
got that all men are as nothing to Him to whom all 
this glory was due. Sure we made ourselves, in this 
uncertain world, of rapid and uninterrupted advance. 
In the sea of our bold sailing we could see no shoals, 
no rocks ; and every storm we defied. The mightiest 
blast should, as a servant to our skill, but impel us on 
our way ; and even the lightnings of heaven, caught 
by our craft, should, harmless, turn the wheels of our 
strength, and minister to our success. Nothing was 
too extravagant to believe about ourselves and our 
destiny. 



^G v 



Other nations have found us bold, braggart and 
insolent. We have not waited until, with consoli- 
dated power, we could calmly take our seat in the 
grand council of the peoples, but like an upstart who 
fears that his claim will be questioned, we have rudely- 
jostled aside our elders, and forced our way into the 
circle, quick to quarrel if any queried as to the right 
or decency of our doings. A restless and encroaching 
ambition has made our neighbors watch us suspicious- 
ly ; and our braggart tongue has not served to lull 
their suspicions. We have demanded that the world 
confess the success of Democracy, and that, having 
waited through the slow ages for wisdom, it has now 
seen it in the mighty Republic of the West. 

This, our pride and self-confidence, has made us 
vulnerable. We have deserved rebuke, and rebuke 
has come. It has taken the form most mortifying, 
and the taste most bitter. Had an outside enemy, 
envious of our peace, and a foe to our freedom, assail- 
ed and overwhelmed us, we still could have held up 
our heads among men, our honor safe. But now that 
the stability of our government has been threatened 
by our own citizens, our shame that the attempt has 
been made can scarce be increased even by the suc- 
cess of that attempt. 

The hilt of the sword, that we brandished in the 
face of the world, hath proved sharper than the point, 
and hath cut to the bone the hand that held it. The 
tree of our glory, to the shade and rest of whose 
spreading boughs, with a boasting hospitality, we in- 



vited all men, hath shed down madness and death on 
our own heads. The circle of our strength, in which 
we trusted as if it had been a wall of adamant, has 
turned out to be the coil of a serpent, and its force 
threatens to close upon us to our ruin. 

Thus God has made our pride to humble us. Thus 
our very strength is made to tear and mangle us. 
The Lord hath put us to shame, and made our shame 
to be seen of all the earth. Let us then humble our- 
selves and repent. 

2. Before this trouble dashed like an armed man 
upon us, worldliness was eating out the heart of our 
nation. To live delicately, to gather under our plain 
institutions all the vanities of courtly circles, — that 
seemed to have assumed the dimensions of almost a 
national ambition. We were ruining our young men 
and our young women. We were rearing up a gene- 
ration to serve the world only. The stern, serious 
life of the past seemed to be already only a matter of 
history. The air was growing too thin and poor for 
strong lungs to breathe. Soft ease had lulled us into 
a luxurious sleep so still and deep that a shock, less 
terrible than the present, could not have awakened 
us. But now a great change has come, for our good 
God has given us something serious to think of, some- 
thing stern to do, something heavy to bear. He has 
turned the tide of the nation's thoughts. He has 
summoned her strength to do battle for his ancient 
gifts, and the venerable principles of our Government. 
To check the growth of luxurious habits and the cur- 



10 



rent of folly, He has stopped the flow of riches, and 
-.attered the hoards of the wealthy. In places where 
heartless fashion lavished its millions upon follies, but 
where it was hard to support a mission or to build a 
church, the Lord has recalled the silver and gold, the 
streets mourn, the empty warehouses echo the laments 
of their owners, and ships rot at the wharves. Is it 
not well? 

" 111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
Where wealth increases, but where men decay." 

Gladly may we give up our material prosperity, if 
God thereby make us truer, stronger, and wiser for 
Himself. 

3. Before this day of disaster we wore the bonds 
of our loyalty lightly. By some selfish and mean con- 
trivance the yoke of our patriotism was held up from 
our shoulders. To the most of those who gave any 
attention to politics, party was more than country. 
We have let men, who had no motive but their own 
power or pelf, rule. We have taken partisan cries 
from their lips, and striven for the domination of our 
favorites. All this while great national interests have 
been neglected. 

High, sacred, and holy are the duties of citizens. 
We did not know it, or if we did know it, we did not 
care for it. We had stagnated. Corruption had 
gathered in the black and noisome pool of our poli- 
tics. There was no motion but that of crawling and 
slimy reptiles, bred of that corruption. It was neces- 



11 

sary to let on a stream of purity from a higher source. 
It has come. It is a flood. We stagger in its rush. 
But it will, if God pleases, sweep out the mud and 
slime, and leave a pure stream, in which a world may 
wash and be clean. 

4. God has some great ends to gain by this con- 
vulsion, — ends that rise high above the purposes of 
men. Indications of this we cannot fail to see in the 
sweep and force of these events. The whole course 
of this revolt, from the first, fast spread itself beyond 
the lines which men drew, and quickly shook itself 
free from the control of men. In the South the lead- 
ers never thought of resistance such as they have met. 
Nor did the people think that they were to follow 
their leaders thus far. At the North we most unwill- 
ingly opened our eyes to the magnitude of the crisis, 
and only by the most violent shocks were roused to 
make it a serious matter. We jested and laughed. 
We knowingly predicted. We could see, not far 
away, the speedy discomfiture, nay, rather the spon- 
taneous subsiding of the revolt. When the contest 
began we boasted ourselves, when girding on our 
harness, as he that putteth it off. We marked out for 
our army times, and seasons, and lines of victory. But 
panics have spoiled our plans, and the work grows in 
spite of us, because God's ends, and not ours, are to 
be gained by it. What those Divine purposes are 
how can we know ? There is in this matter only one 
true and safe philosophy. One man guesses, and 
another man guesses. Our writers, our orators, and 
our preachers, too, flood us with their vain predictions. 



12 



One can tell us what this struggle will do for other 
lands. Another knows how it will affect our own 
country. One comes to teach us how this strife will 
leave the white man. Another has clear vision of 
how it will end for the slave. But what it will be, 
God only knows. He will do all His will. Let us be 
content to do calmly and earnestly all our duty. God 
will care for the end. It is safer with Him than with 



Our nation wants yet some element of strength, or 
wisdom, or patience, or humility, or righteousness, in 
order to do well its work. Some one of its limbs is 
palsied, and only some surgery, like that whose cutting 
sharpness has made us cry to-day unto the Lord, will 
let into it the flow of true life. Some excresence 
mars with hideous growth its beauty, or cramps the 
free movements of its strength, and must be torn out, 
even if its roots be laced about the heart. Therefore 
God has let the ambitious aspirings of men, the avar- 
icious and cruel hopes of men, the imbecility and 
treachery of men, the coldness and apathy of men, to 
entangle us in this net. When His work is done He 
will give us deliverance, and in the joy of that 
deliverance we will give Him the praise of service, 
such as we could never have rendered had it not been 
for what we suffer. At the siege of Sebastopol it is 
said that a cannon ball shattered a rock, and that water 
gushed forth, of which the weary drank for many 
days. So shall this shock of our day open fountains 
of good that shall refresh, with God's blessing, our 
whole land for many days. And then shall we know, 



13 



and gladly tell each other, why, seeing that the Lord 
is with us, all this is befallen us. The mystery of our 
misery shall be made clear by the measure of God's 
mercy. 

With this hope we may be impelled to ask with 
Gideon : "If the Lord be with us, where be all His 
miracles, which our fathers told us of? " 

The history of our nation has been a history of 
Divine interpositions. We will not now despair be- 
cause our sins and the necessities of our discipline and 
growth have brought upon us some disasters. We 
wait for miracles of God like those of which our fath- 
ers have told us, — like them, yea, and much more 
abundant and glorious. Let us wait for them in 
prayer, service and hope. 

Let us wait in prayer. " If," said the Lord to His 
ancient people, " I shut up heaven that there be no 
rain, or if I command the locusts that they devour the 
land, or if I send pestilence among my people ;" — and 
has not this civil strife all these evils combined, for 
does it not, as when the rain refuses to fall, dry up the 
land, and diminish its production, — does it not, like 
the locusts, take the bread out of the people's mouth, 
— and does it not, like the pestilence, send sorrow into 
many homes ? — " Then," says the Lord, " if my people 
that are called by my name, shall humble themselves, 
and pray and seek my face, and turn from their 
wicked ways, then will I hear from Heaven, and will 
forgive their sin, and will heal their land." The Lord's 



14 



ear is not heavy. He is to be trusted now as ever. 
Let us cry unto Him, and He will hear, and heal our 
land. 

But to prayer we must add service. Let each 
acquaint himself with the history and principles of 
that Government which this formidable conspiracy, 
destructive to freedom and the hopes of men, not only 
here, but in all the world, seeks to demolish, so as to 
be able with words strong with truth, to rebuke every 
one that would apologize for rebellion, or extenuate 
its crimes. That is service worth rendering, and in 
many instances as much needed as bullets for the 
battle. 

Learn to lay by all party prejudices and prefer- 
ences, and to judge of men and measures on broad 
principles, and in behalf of our country, and our 
whole country. 

Bear taxation bravely, and all the burdens of the 
day firmly. 

Give way to all honest feeling that bemoans the 
loss of life, the distress of families robbed of their 
dearest, the struggles of poverty increased, and the 
strife of brothers, but make that feeling always the 
servant of sound reason. Let it learn to lay the blame 
of disturbance upon those that make it, not on those 
that quell it, and to charge the cost of the restoration 
of peace to those that broke the peace. And let not 
feeling indulge in wishes for any peace, but a true 
peace and a strong peace. 



15 



Look at a noble scriptural example. We see Da- 
vid, Israel's honored ruler, going out of Jerusalem, 
weeping as he went. What means it ? A rebellion, 
long devised and secretly arranged, like that which 
troubles us, had broken out. Its first movements, 
(and here is the likeness again,) were successful, and 
threatened the capital. David wept, for this revolt 
was led by a darling son, and moved with such vigor, 
and such seeming popular approval in certain por- 
tions of the land, (there is the likeness once more, ) 
that he had painful fears as to the issue, as many here 
have had. But with this pressure on his heart, and 
this gripe of rebel force upon his hand, did he de- 
termine to let rebellion alone, and give it its way ? 
No ! He was opposed to peace, except when gained 
by righteousness. He wept, but he warred also. He 
wept as we weep to-day, and yet he girded himself 
for the fight. And God gave peace by means of war, 
to him and to the Land. And the people everywhere, 
even in the section in which the unnatural and cause- 
less revolt had broken out, strove with one another to 
show their loyalty, and their joy at the suppression of 
treason. So do we, trustful, wait to see it in our own 
land. 

We are sorry for our sin, and troubled by the just 
judgments of God, but we do not meanly cringe be- 
fore the baseness of rebellion, and like cowarfls yield 
to the foes of our land. We bow to God, but never 
to rebels. We hide our faces before the Lord, but 
we look treachery in the face. With our confession 
of sin to God, we speak out to man a solemn, serious, 



16 



dutiful condemnation and defiance of apostacy. We 
will not permit any one to snatch from us, and vilely 
cast away that inheritance which has cost the tears 
and blood of the best men of our best age, and which 
God hath trusted to our care for our children. It is 
a sacred deposit in our hands, and we must keep it 
safe for other generations, and for the world. With 
such views we can be as composed in war as in peace, 
as great in victory as in conflict, as resolute under dis- 
aster as in prosperity. 

Trust in the Lord then, and hold fast to hope. No 
interest of righteousness shall in the end get damage 
from these disasters of our day. God will give the 
kingdom to his Son. The Prince of Peace shall reign. 
Even war shall make way for His coming. Then shall 
all these troubles cease. That shall cure all the dis- 
eases of this sick earth. That shall be the refuge 
from all the enemies of this beleaguered world. Then 
shall the earth have rest. God hasten it, and He shall 
have the praise ! Amen ! 



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